Price and ABC settle after four years

News corp issues final public apology

After years of litigation, a dispute between ABC News and Frederick K. C. Price of Los Angeles religious org Crenshaw Christian Center has come to a close.

In 2007, then-correspondent John Stossel reported that Price had used money given to the nonprofit Center for luxury items, and played as support a clip of Price saying, “I live in a 25-room mansion, I have my own $6-million yacht, I have my own private jet and I have my own helicopter and I have seven luxury automobiles.” In the context of the sermon from which the clip was taken, it was clear that Price was not referring to himself. The seg aired on both “20/20″ and “Good Morning America.”

The network admitted the mistake at the time, issuing corrections on-air and online. Stossel explained that he had not seen the full sermon and apologized to Price and the church. “We apologize if we misled you,” Stossel told viewers.

Now, as a result of an out-of-court settlement between Price and ABC, the Alphabet’s news division has issued a final, strongly-worded apology.

“ABC News apologizes for any harm caused to you as a result of its broadcast of a video clip that ABC News stated was of you speaking about yourself when in fact you were talking about a hypothetical person,” senior v.p. Kerry Smith said in a statement to Price. “ABC News regrets that it did not conduct sufficient investigation of the clip after receiving it to establish its correct context. By presenting the footage out of context, ABC News misled its audience and failed to meet its own standards, which ABC deeply regrets.”